First a hiatus, then a cutback

Hello there! This is not a normal blog for me, nor will I count it as such. It's a news update from yours truly to let you know that I'm flying off to Belgium on Satuday, January 23, and that I won't be back until February 6, just in time for my son Gregory's sixth birthday. I'm also out of town...
Windows Time Synch Problem Solver: Atomic Clock Sync

I'm sitting here at Gate 78 in the Pittsburgh airport. It's 4:40 AM, and I'm waiting for 5:15 to roll around so I can board a flight to Atlanta, and thence on home to Austin. In about 5.5 hours I should be climbing into my car, to drive another 35 miles to Round Rock and home. Especially while...
Handy Windows IP Configuration Utility: Win IP Config

I teach online courses for HP and other vendors, and really enjoy that work. I often learn as much or more from the students as I feel like they're learning from me. Case in point: in one of my Windows classes, a student asked me if there was any graphical utility like the old winipcfg utility that...
Upgrading from 32- to 64-bit Windows (7, mostly)

I've been an online instructor for HP at their online Learning Center for over five years. There, the company offers free, short courses on a whole range of computing topics, including numerous items focused on Windows 7 (the following...
GUIDs, Shortcuts, and “GodMode” in Windows 7 and Vista

Last week, I read with great interest about a well-worn Windows trick. If you couple a folder name with a specific globally unique identifier, usually called a GUID, and save it in a directory, presto! you've created an Explorer-centric way to jump straight into specific named Windows facilities....
Build a Quick’n’Dirty WinRE UFD for Windows 7

A quick and judicious combination of the right tools can make it easy to add to your Windows 7 (or Vista) toolkit. The Windows 7 Recovery Environment (aka WinRE) is included on the operating system install media — it's what comes up when you elect to "Repair your computer" early on in the Windows...
Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade: Fast & Easy

The Anytime Upgrade program was introduced with Windows Vista, but it was slow (key purchase, validation, and download routinely took over half an hour, and installation likewise took 20-30 minutes or so). That's why I approached the Windows 7 Anytime Upgrade with some trepidation. What I learned...